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Led by Ross Perot, the Presidential candidates are engaged in the costliest advertising blitz of any general election campaign. Already, they have poured more than $40 million into network television alone, and they expect to spend millions more by next Tuesday.

That figure represents only a portion of the spending on broadcast commercials because the campaigns are also spending large amounts in local markets and on radio stations.

The surge in advertising budgets is driven in large part by Mr. Perot, who is spending far more than any previous independent candidate. In the first two weeks of this month, after he got back in the race, Mr. Perot dipped into his personal fortune, spending $26 million, almost exclusively on ads, including network, radio and local television. That was more than double what either President Bush or Gov. Bill Clinton had spent, according to the Federal Election Commission.

Today in Dallas, Mr. Perot's campaign unveiled nine new commercials, a departure in that they feature the candidate himself instead of a rolling text.

Unlike the major party candidates, who each received $55 million in Federal subsidies for the general election by agreeing not to accept private donations, Mr. Perot can spend as much of his own fortune as he wants on his independent effort. He has said he expects to spend more than $60 million.

Political commercials will be virtually inescapable in this final stretch; all three campaigns have purchased time on mystery programs, football games, comedies and more. Network advertising executives said they had never expected the campaigns to buy so much air time this year.

A survey today of advertising purchases on ABC, CBS and NBC found that Mr. Perot had spent $19.8 million on network commercials, the most of the three candidates. He was followed by Mr. Bush, who had spent $17.5 million, and Mr. Clinton, $5.4 million. Windfall for ABC TV

"It's a huge difference from '88," said Stephen Battaglio, manager of media relations for ABC. "And our sales department has been expecting more buys in the final week."

To date, the Presidential campaigns and the Democratic Party have purchased $22 million in advertising on ABC, Mr. Battaglio said, far more than on the other networks. "I guess it's because we tend to reach a younger viewer who is less likely to watch news programming," he said.

Though the Perot and Bush campaigns have by no means held back on their network advertising in recent weeks, they like the Clinton campaign, are planning blitzes for the final week. On CBS, for example, the Clinton campaign has paid for nearly $1 million worth of time for ads that have yet to run.

Each of the three campaigns is expected to broadcast 30-minute appeals the night before the election, which ABC said it would cost the campaigns another $472,500. Some Targeted Ads

The network figures do not tell the full story. The Clinton campaign is expected to spend as much as the Bush campaign, but it is concentrating on local markets in crucial states, a tactic pioneered in earlier campaigns by Republicans. The Democrats say that targeting their advertising is more efficient because the campaign does not spend money on states where Mr. Clinton has either a comfortable lead or no chance of winning.

By contrast, the Bush campaign, which has found itself behind Mr. Clinton across the country, has emphasized national buys. But it, too, has purchased time in some targeted states, as has Mr. Perot, despite his preference for national commercials. The campaigns have refused to say exactly how much they are spending in local television markets.

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In addition to the advertising purchased by the campaigns, other groups are buying air time to help particular candidates. Democratic Party officials say they expect to spent as much as $12 million on generic advertising that does not mention their candidates by name. Much of that will be spent in the final days of the campaign. On ABC alone, the Democrats have bought $1.7 million worth of time.

The more than $40 million spent on network advertising thus far is already a record; in 1988 the campaigns spent $38.5 million on network advertising in the general election, according to the Television Bureau of Advertising, a trade group.

Harold Simpson, a vice president of the bureau, said Mr. Perot's aggressive advertising efforts have helped spur Mr. Bush and Mr. Clinton to compete. "Both parties," he said, "are pulling out all the stops at the national, regional and local levels."

Mr. Simpson said the bureau projected that candidates for national and local offices this election will spend more than $300 million on advertising, compared with nearly $230 million in 1988.

To fill half of the hour he purchased on ABC tonight, Mr. Perot broadcast a new presentation about building businesses and creating jobs, the central effort the Texas entrepreneur says he would bring to the White House.

But rather than giving an academic discourse on national tax and investment policy, Mr. Perot provided a Dale Carnegie-style lecture about his basic business principles.

Mr. Perot suggested that his experience in building a large data-processing corporation was more applicable to the country's economic problems than his opponents' familiarity with fiscal policy.

"Economists base everything on theory," he said. "What we need is people with practical experience in business who know how to do this."

And when asked by his interviewer, actually his media consultant, how small new companies should compete with larger established ones, Mr. Perot gave a response that seemed intended as a metaphor for his campaign. "They will dismiss you as a loony for showing up and they will go into cardiac arrest when you win," he said.

The Perot campaign announced today that it had purchased time for still more "infomercials": 30 minutes on CBS on Wednesday night; 30 minutes on ABC and 60 minutes on NBC on Sunday night; and 30 minutes on all three networks on Monday night, the eve of the election.

Sharon Holman, Mr. Perot's press secretary, said she had high hopes for the new ads. "Probably, at least in my own opinion, there's nothing more powerful than Ross Perot looking right in the camera and talking to you," she said. "That's the reason for part of the success of the infomercials, and I think part of the success of the debates as well."

A version of this article appears in print on October 27, 1992, on Page A00019 of the National edition with the headline: THE 1992 CAMPAIGN: Campaign Finance; Perot Leads in $40 Million TV Ad Blitz. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe